The slap I receive feels like it dislocated my jaw and I spit the blood in my mouth at the guard who hit me. Growling, he raises his hand again.
“Stop!” The auctioneer must have some authority because the man does, angrily wiping my spit and blood off his face. “This is a job for the girl’s new owner,” he says, with another oily grin.
Stifling a gag, I sneer at him. I have nothing left to lose.
The past always comes for us, no matter how we try to outrun it.
***
Alastair…
The perfectly groomed women at the bid table are a stark contrast to the disheveled girls huddled in the back, black tear tracks streaming down their cheeks. Sorcha isn’t crying, her silver-grey eyes are alight like the fires of hell, but she has her arm around another girl who’s sobbing uncontrollably.
“Congratulations.”
Turning, I smile blandly at Zhang. He’s standing too close and glaring up at me. He’s expensively dressed and immaculate, not a hair out of place. But his eyes are quite literally glowing with fury.
Hell, it’s worth the one hundred million just to enrage this fucker. “Thank you,” I say graciously.
He sends a bodyguard to settle his bids as he continues his attempt to intimidate me. “I did not think this was your sort of party, Taylor.”
“There’s always an exception, isn’t there?”
His narrowed gaze doesn’t leave mine. “I have a proposal.”
“Yes?”
Zhang leans closer, “When you’re finished with her, sell what’s left of her to me.” There’s a fine sheen of sweat on his forehead and he licks his lips.
The urge to take the switchblade from my ankle holster and stab him in the throat is almost uncontrollable.
“We’ll see.” I nod politely and step up to the table to pay, ignoring the fluttering eyelashes of the woman taking my banking information. She doesn’t seem to hear the sobs of the captives behind her.
A guard leads me over to the terrified thicket of girls, huddled in the corner.
“We have rooms here if you’d like to test the merchandise before you leave,” he winks. Two of the men who’d bid on Sorcha perk up.
“Yeah, Taylor! Try her out now, then give me a turn.” I recognize him, Enzo from the Calderone Mafia in Sicily.
Zhang’s assistant steps forward. “Mr. Zheng has first claim on the girl after-”
“That won’t be necessary,” I interrupt, answering the guard. “I’ll take her now.”
Callum leans in. “Boss? We’re getting a lot of unwelcome attention.”
“So we are,” I murmur, watching the angry faces around us. “Have six of our men outside waiting by the door and the car running. Let’s move quickly.”
The girl is glaring at me, her hands chained together. I note with some amusement that her captors didn’t give her enough length to attempt to strangle them. Perhaps she already tried.
Taking her upper arm firmly, I pull her toward the exit. When she digs in her heels, cursing at me, I grab a fistful of her hair with my other hand, making her gasp.
“These men want me to rape you in front of an audience and then take a turn on you,” I say coldly. “Do you want that?”
Her bravado fades. “No.”
“Then get moving and do exactly as I say.”
Chapter Six
